And so on until you know quite a lot about the surprising and mysterious (and, overlapping) backgrounds of each of the main characters. Then, you get the backstory on the next child and you learn things that weren’t revealed by the first child. The story unfolds carefully, starting with one of the children and beginning the story from his point of view. The four children meeting at the Life is Sweet factory all have specific reasons for wanting to win.

Then all the candies are collected and a winner is chosen. Children are given free rein at candy factories across the country and have several days to develop a new candy. The basic premise of The Candymakers is that four children are meeting at a candy factory as part of a nationwide candy making contest. I worried originally that this book might fall into the same trap, but it neatly avoided it, much to my relief. And they have failed quite spectacularly by my standards ( School of Fear was one of them – it felt like it was just trying so very very hard). I’ve read a number of books in the last little while that have tried to imitate the same clever, amusing feel that The Mysterious Benedict Society did well. I haven’t read a LOT of Wendy Mass books (and by “not a lot,” I mean “exactly one other one besides this title,”) but the woman is a VERY popular middle grade writer, I’m starting to realize and this one made me realize why. Four kids trying to invent a new candy, all of them harboring secrets? This book is a winner.

8 of 10: The Candymakers is just the kind of book I wish my school libraries had been full of.

The candymakers